Lou MC Yelps a Lot

This is about a biz page I added 2 years ago - Melita's Restaurant . One day, I was driving to James Lee Park and saw this untapped treasure. I thought they should be on Yelp. I started to take photos and the bartenders got nervous. I told them I just wanted to share my dining experience with my friends. I think they were nervous because they never seen Asian guy speaks Spanish and eat Salvadorian food. I grew up in South America and this ain't nothing new to me. I don't remember how I told the owner Melita about Yelp. It might be after I took a photo of storefront or after I wrote the review. I also added photos to Google Places. I was over there few months ago. Upon check in, I noticed 4 more reviews and a "From the Business" section on the bottom. I think her daughter may have claimed the business. Not bad. They are catching on. I'm going back this spring after daylight savings time start. I got my Fitbit. I will walk the park and eat pupusas at M...

This is the beginning of a new concept to event planning. I welcome your comments and suggestions to make this Chinatown Crawl UYE possible. Please post your reply here or on the Talk thread . I have been the Baron of Chinatown on Yelp for over a year. I can't say I'm the expert with restaurants, but I could help you discover the best of Chinatown. Even if I don't know, I can try to find the answer for you. Where's Chinatown? Most people refer to just the businesses on Bellaire Blvd, from Gessner to Beltway. But in reality, it covers one huge area being the most diverse Super-neighborhoods in Houston. Yelp defined this Chinatown neighborhood On the Chinatown Crawl UYE, I want to take you one strip mall at a time. You can experience different Chinese regional cuisine, popular dessert items and a show-n-tell of what you can find at a grocery store. The following is a list of existing strip malls: Welcome Center 惠康廣場 - 9180 Bellaire Blvd Diho Plaza  頂好廣場 ...

I began to notice this magazine called The Weekly Yelp http://www.yelp.com/weekly_yelp . It's pretty neat, I started to follow the topics published every Wednesday.  It's very different from ROTD. There are 5 businesses featured each week. Only one review get picked from each business. I don't know how long this has been in existence. According to the Houston's Weekly, it started on November 4, 2015. I find some reviewers are very talented but they aren't Elites. I hope they become Elites one day. The Weekly Yelp is best viewed on computer. I prefer reading The Weekly Yelp on a computer. I can't handle long review on narrow phone screen, even when my phone is bigger than before.

At the New Year’s Elite badge release, some Yelpers were excited with another year's elite status. But some left out wondering, "Where is mine?" I'm guessing there is a formula to calculate how much you contribute to the Yelp community. By checking in and posting photos do not impact Yelp's business objective, reviews do. I printed out my friends list before and after the badge release, I concluded a reason why few of my Elite Yelper friends couldn't carry the status from last year. They had something in common. I see everyone had a gap of review writing for more than 3 months during 2015. I can't say how long and how much they need in order to catch up. Let's prove me wrong. If you want to give this a try, start writing again - post at least one review a week. It may just do the trick. HQ gives Elite badge almost weekly. Here are some examples - monthly review posts:  Meriem B . from Houston, TX This gap in reviews costed his continuing Eli...

Wait. What is this? Is it a math problem for me to solve? No way, who put this thing in the middle of my profile? This is a new feature for app users only - Last 90 Days. No worry. This is a new tool to show how your Yelp contribution being viewed. It's like a website counter for each element: reviews, photos and profile. So, I captured the images from iPhone and Android to share with you. It appears the website has same info. Woohoo! I captured some Q&A from my Beta App Group: It updates once a day. Only shows other users' views, none from me. Everyone can see it. Yes, everyone. Here is how the number crunches: Someone looked at your profile multiple times within the 90 day period counts. But someone looked at your content repeatedly in a short time won't count. HQ has a blog to share  http://officialblog.yelp.com/2016/01/how-many-views-do-your-reviews-get-find-out-now.html So far, I only find one news helpful. I think we are going to hear more about i...

It's expected to see our colorful background disappear right after midnight new year eve. No worry. This happens every year. I captured this image to share with you. The apps have been evolving in 2015 and the layouts are little different. Our Elite badges will be released on the next business day. They normally come in several waves. We'll see what will happen next year. Here is a Talk thread from our CM Farrah in January 2014. Android & iPhone version of my profile on New Year's Day 1/1/15. It's always fun to send and receive compliments whenever we get the badge. Badge in different colors Red Badge - 1st to 4th year Gold Badge - 5th to 9th year Black Badge - 10th year and more Here is an example of a tenured Elite Yelper . I can't wait to see what color after 15 years of Elite.

We love Six Ping Bakeries in Chinatown. I received a message from Yelper Que N. as she notice a Six Ping sign at Saigon Plaza. It is technically not inside of Chinatown on the east of Beltway. So, I went to investigate. Six Ping has 4 location in Houston Chinatown area On their website, there isn't any information about their 4th store at 10623 Bellaire Blvd Ste C120 (Next to Pho Dien & UT Medical). Then, I went to the Dun Huang Plaza bakery and asked about it. The store clerk said, it will open sometime early December. I went back to check daily. It finally opened on Saturday, 12/5/15. Then, I thought to write a blog to have a collection of the stores in one location: Bellaire Six Ping - 9384 Bellaire  yelp.com/biz/six-ping-houston Viet Hoa Plaza - 8388 W Sam Houston Parkway, Ste 184  yelp.com/biz/six-ping-houston-2 Dun Huang Plaza - 9889 Bellaire Blvd, Ste D246  yelp.com/biz/six-ping-houston-5 Saigon Plaza - 10623 Bellaire Blvd...